Government of The United Kingdom - Government and The Crown

Government and The Crown

The British Monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, is the Head of State of the United Kingdom.

The Queen takes little direct part in government, and must remain strictly neutral in political affairs. However, the legal authority known as the Crown remains the source of the executive power used by the Government.

These powers are known as Royal Prerogative and can be used for a vast number of things, such as the issue or withdrawal of passports, to the dismissal of the Prime Minister or even the Declaration of War. The powers are delegated from the Monarch personally, in the name of the Crown, and can be handed to various ministers, or other Officers of the Crown, and can purposely bypass the consent of Parliament.

The head of Her Majesty’s Government, the Prime Minister, also has weekly meetings with the monarch, where she may express her feelings, warn, or advise the Prime Minister in the Government's work.

In practice, the Royal Prerogative powers are almost all delegated to the Government or to Crown officials:

Domestic powers

• The power to dismiss and appoint a Prime Minister. This power is exercised by the Monarch herself. In theory, she may choose a Prime Minister of her own choice, though in practice she must appoint the individual most capable of commanding a majority in the House of Commons.
• The power to dismiss and appoint other ministers. This power is exercised by the Prime Minister alone.
• The power to summon and prorogue Parliament. The power to dissolve Parliament in no longer part of the Royal Prerogative, following the passing of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011.
• The power to grant or refuse Royal Assent to bills (making them valid and law) . This is exercised by the Monarch, although no Monarch has refused to grant Royal Assent to a bill passed by Parliament since Queen Anne in 1708.
• The power to commission officers in the Armed Forces
• The power to command the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom. This power is formally exercised by the Defence Council.
• The power to appoint members to the Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council
• The power to issue and withdraw passports. This is exercised by the Home Secretary.
• The power to grant Prerogative of mercy (though Capital Punishment is abolished, this power is still used to remedy errors in sentence calculation)
• The power to grant honours
• The power to create corporations via Royal Charter

Foreign powers

• The power to ratify and make treaties.
• The power to declare war and Peace
• The power to deploy the Armed Forces overseas
• The power to recognize states
• The power to credit and receive diplomats

Even though the United Kingdom has no single constitution document, in October 2003, in order to increase transparency, the Government published the above list as some of the powers exercised in the name of the Monarch and which are part of the Royal Prerogative. However the full extent of Her Majesty's powers has never been fully disclosed.